Daniel Bertram with his sister and brother

This is one of my favorite photos - a picture of me (first on the right), my sister Ernestyna Bertram (first on the left) and my brother Henryk Bertram (in the center). It was taken in Jordanow, in 1938, during summer holidays. We were so happy then. I was the oldest of us brothers and sisters. My brother Henryk was four years younger. My sister Ernestyna, or Nusia - that's what we called her - was seven years younger than me. Each of us went to a different school. Nusia went to 'Konopnicka'. That was a girls' school. And on the next street was the boys' school. Henryk went to that boys' school first, and then he moved. After that he went to evening school, to an evening grammar school on the Main Square, and worked at the same time. My brother and sister and I never spent time together. All we did together was eat breakfast, or dinner or supper. And other than that each of us went his own way. For all meals the whole family always sat at the table together. But other than that everyone went their own ways and I didn't know anything, what kind of life my sister led, what my brother did, where he went to school, if he had a tutor. I didn't know anything. I spoke to my brother and sister in Polish, and my parents spoke to each other in Yiddish.